SANCTIFYING OVERFLOW
With the gifts God gives me in this life, I’ve found it constantly challenging to receive them well. I am so thankful for how He blesses me with abundance, but I often fail to hold any type of blessing without it becoming bigger in my heart than it should be. Over time, I’ve grown so fearful of the sweet gifts that come from Him because they always have the potential of becoming an idol… and if they even creep into that territory, I know in my history with God that in His loving discipline and intervention, He’ll remove it (ultimately for my good). And really… It’s never not a painful undoing.
I want to truly master what it means to hold all things loosely, with a deep understanding that Jesus and His love is more than enough and all I’ll ever need in this life. When I operate from that place, there is fullness and abundance… I get the cliche image of an overflowing cup, but I literally imagine an overflowing cup that isn’t just overflowing for a single moment, but is overflowing at every point in time for eternity. And who, when they have an overflowing cup, knowing it will flow forever, perceives the need to hold onto or store more elsewhere? You never need to store up what you know you’ll have an eternal abundance of. In fact, when you face a situation of overflow, you desperately look for other vessels to fill — Other people to bless, other brothers and sisters to pour into freely.
My formative years used to convince me that my life echoed the theme of lack — Whether it was a lack of love, a lack of security, or a lack of provision. And though it is now redeemed, my particular relational upbringing also used to convince me that I could never be first choice for anyone. Both sentiments are so blatantly false for any child of God, and believing those lies results in holding certain things too tightly. When someone believes they lack, they shamelessly grip onto whatever they can in order to keep the “little” that they have. It’s devastating… I believe Jesus looks at such a heart with grief. But surely, there is an antidote that will work — Confidence in the full and complete love of the Father. I never have to cling so tightly to something or someone when I know the promise that I am (and will be) filled by my Father forever. I never have to resort to dead things or counterfeit affections when He becomes my everything. And when things do get stripped away, I never have to question if it’s His best for me or not.
With every gift I am given, I want to make it an offering back to Him. I can only do that if I know that He is my perfect portion, and that I live in everlasting overflow when I walk with Him. It is so hard to give something away when you think you absolutely need it. It is especially hard to give something good and sweet away when you think you won’t ever find better. I am coming to see that those kinds of offerings to the Lord are what move His heart though. Because you are essentially making the declaration that beyond the desires He meets, the gifts He lavishes, and the dreams He fulfills… He is still all that you need. I give all of it back to Him because He is worthy.
“We are totally destitute. Everything that we have comes from Him and we have nothing to offer except what He has given us.”
- Elisabeth Elliot